Aftermath
by Usagi Elric
Summary: What do you do when a war is over? You deal with what's left. Newt and Hermann are having trouble directly facing what they both know is there.
1. Chapter 1

Hermann sat stiffly in the chair at his desk, his eyes not focusing from exhaustion and his hand still curled around his cane. Newton was seated in equal silence across the room, his forehead resting on the heel of his hands, elbows on his knees as he was bent forwards. Dust and debris was still all over him, his hair a tangled mess and his glasses broken, blood still ever so slowly seeping out of his mouth, nose and numerous cuts and scrapes. Hermann looked better, but not much. He was only bleeding from the nose, but that had long since stopped. He had wiped away some of it, but not much, his hair was rumpled as well, even after his feeble attempts to smooth it down.

Newt slowly lifted his head, looking over to where he could feel a dull buzzing originating. All he could do was stare for what seemed like the longest while. Herm had always seemed impervious to him, well, apart from any jibes or remarks that he shot, but other than that it always seemed like nothing got to him. And so naturally it shocked him to see the elder man not doing something. Even though Newt was known and regarded as the hyperactive one, Herm was almost never still just as much. He was always thinking, writing, typing, talking, eating or sleeping. Never not doing something. It all but shattered the idea of imperviousness to see him, well almost shell-shocked.

"How did we get here?" Newt asked in a weak, strained, cracking voice. "How did we end up like this? When I first joined the PPDC, and was assigned to the K-science division…I never imagined shit like this would happen to me."

"You never were a very good practically prepared man. Scientists should be prepared for any outcome." Hermann replied flatly. Newton frowned,  
"So you're telling me you considered it a possibility that one day you'd drift with me _and_ a Kaiju, get the practical shit beat out of you, and then basically save the world?" He asked incredulously, almost mockingly.  
"Oh yes, I'm definitely sure I pondered it at some point." Herm replied sarcastically.

The biologist ignored the remark and groaned as the buzzing in his head intensified, dropping his head into his hands, clutching at his hair. Hermann spared him a glance, and then drawled rather tediously,  
"If that doesn't go away I suggest you visit medical. Acute deafness is a possibility; not surprising how loud everything was today. Suppose this means you'll be playing that rubbish you call music even louder now."  
"There's a definite difference between ringing from deafness and buzzing in the back of your head from who knows fucking where." Newt said, his voice escalating into an annoyed shout.

Hermann's eyes flicked at the words, but then dismissed it, and the possibility. Not sure whether he did so because he thought it was improbable, (even though it wasn't) or he detested the idea of sharing something more intimate that a lab with the Kaiju groupie.  
"Then take some form of medication, just stop bothering me with your incessant whining." Newt glared at the back of his head before storming out of the lab in a furious haste, directed at the mathematician's complete lack of understand and care, slamming the door so hard behind him that it swung back open.

Doctor Gottlieb stared at the wall as he could feel a sense of hurt and anger flash in the back of his mind, neither being emotions of his own. He dropped his head into his hands and rubbed small remnants of life back into himself by massaging his temples.


	2. Chapter 2

Gieszler stormed down the halls in a rage, his jaw clenched, head pounding, and a bloody tang on his tongue. His right hand tapped out a frantic rhythm against his thigh, his other hand shaking as well, but not tapping. He reached the door he hadn't realized he was heading for and rapped erratically on the metal door. It opened promptly to a blond man in a dark singlet, and Newton looked up, as if he only just realised he was there.

"Hey Newt, what's up, you need something?" The blond asked coolly.

"Raleigh. Uh, no. I mean yes! I uh, I need to talk to you about something." He spluttered out.

Becket smirked and stepped away from the door, gesturing for him to enter. He did so, and stood awkwardly in the middle of the room until told to sit in the chair at the desk.

"You look like hell man, haven't you gone for a shower at least yet?"  
"No, haven't uh, haven't gotten around to it." Newton replied with a sniff, wiping some of the fresh blood away with the palm of his hand, causing Raleigh to get up off the edge of his bed and toss a box of tissues at him. He nodded in thanks and began to clean himself up.

"What's up, you said you needed to talk?" Raleigh asked, wanting to know what was wrong with his new friend.

"Yes, well I figured since you're a jaeger pilot and all and you've been one for a long time I thought that you could help me, after all you guys drift all the time and who better to ask then someone with experience, right? I mean I guess now that I've done it too you could call me experienced but I mean, I've only done it twice and it was hardly stable and not really what I was looking for, even with everything I know this is still one of those few areas I'm still kinda fuzzy on it, or maybe the neural overloads just fried my ability to make sense of this, but—"

"Newt, Newton slow down!" the pilot urged.  
"Right, yeah sorry I guess I get a little carried away, I haven't slept in a while, or eaten so that's probably not helping at all, I'll work on that after—anyway," He took a deep breath and thought it through in his head for a short moment.

"I was wondering, when two pilots drift, what's it like in your head afterwards?" He asked, "Because there's this incessant buzzing in the back of my head, and sometimes it feels like there's emotions coming from it, and sometimes it just feels like something else altogether and I can't figure it out, and it's pissing me off!"

Raleigh studied him for a while with a frown, taking in everything he was saying.

"It sounds like the same connection we pilots have for a while after drifting. You drifted with Dr Gottlieb, right?"

"Hermann, yeah." Newt nodded quickly.  
"Did you ask him, if he's got the same thing then it's most likely a side affect of the neural handshake and should wear off in a few hours. How long ago was your drift?" He asked with a

"Erm, about seven hours ago." Newton replied with a quick glance at the clock, God, how had so much time passed already? He didn't notice that he had started tapping frantically on his thighs while he bounced his knees.

Becket eyed him carefully, "Well, it shouldn't really last that long, not for you guys cause you only drifted the once. Did either of you chase the R.A.B.I.T?"

Newton's head snapped up at the term, confused for a small moment. "The what? Oh, well not really, I mean, I think that went okay, I don't remember anything going wrong."

His voice trailed off as he began to try and grasp at the sensation at the back of his head, reaching for it. The clearing of a throat interrupted him,  
"Newt, you're uh, you're bleeding again." Becket said with a small gesture to his nose. Newton quickly pressed the tissues to the source of the warm trickle and tipped his head forwards.

The pilot stood and walked over to clap a hand on his shoulder.  
"Look man, I think the best bet would be to talk to Hermann about it, ask him if he's got the same thing. If he does, it's probably something to do with drifting with a Kaiju, and if he doesn't then go see the guys at medical."

Newt nodded and stood, discarding the soiled tissues in the trash and taking a few spare in case he bled more.  
"Thanks Raleigh, I'll um, see you around yeah?" Just as he started to walk off he remembered the other he meant to ask. He darted back to the door,  
"Hey!"Raleigh peeked back around his half closed door with raised eyebrows.  
"What do you do when a war's over?" Newton asked, sounding slightly lost and helpless as he said it.  
He smiled grimly, "You deal with what's left."  
The pilot waited until he walked away to close the door.


End file.
